Something Extra

Everyday Heroes
Gain Recognition

trio of young men from
Bloomfield Township will receive
an award for extraordinary com-
munity service from theAmerican Red
Cross, Southeastern Michigan Chapter.
Ben Falik, Neil Greenberg and
Michael Goldberg will be honored at
the organization's Everyday Heroes
luncheon Tuesday, Nov. 18, at the
Detroit Marriott Ambassador Ballroom.
As described in the Jewish News on
Sept. 5, 2003, the three young men
organized the Summer in the City proj-
ect (SITC), which, for the past two
summers, has brought young people
from the suburbs into Detroit to work
with established organizations on urban
renewal projects. Volunteers are car-
pooled into the city four days a week for
four- to five-hour days.
Among the organizations to benefit
from SITC volunteers have been Focus:
HOPE, Habitat for Humanity, Motor
City Blight Busters, the Southwest
Detroit Graffiti-Free Collaborative and
the American Red Cross.
"It really impacts in people a regional
mindset," Falik says. "The city's prob-
lems are everyone's problems."

A

— Diana Lieberman

Detroit artist Tyree Guyton with Summer
in the City co-founder Ben Falik.

Baby Deaths
Tied To Formula

L

oudspeakers broke the Sabbath
peace last Saturday as Orthodox
neighborhoods in Israel and New
York were informed of the recall of
Remedia infant formula.
Rabbinic leaders approved the
announcements after Israel's Health
Ministry linked the formula to a death
in June, two deaths this month and 10
babies hospitalized.
One Stop Kosher Food Market in
Southfield had 12 units of Remedia for-
mula on its shelves when owner Benji

11/14
2003

14

Silverstein was telephoned by concerned

customers Saturday night. Silverstein
verified the reports with his brother-in-
law in New York, who was part of an
Orthodox group informing the commu-
nity.
"When something is bad, you don't
want it around," Silverstein said. "It was-
n't a big seller, but several people
requested it and we want to help Israel."
Hiller's Markets are promoting Israeli
products at their six stores, but Hiller's
doesn't carry Remedia formula.
Remedia Ltd. in Israel is partially
owned by H.J. Heinz Co. The formula
is made for Remedia by Humana
Milchunion of Germany.

— Alan Hits

Books And Bedlam

A

n opening session of the Jewish

Book Fair on Nov. 7 at the
Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield took an unexpected
turn, according to Dave Silberg of
Huntington Woods.
Howard Blum, author of The Eve of

Destruction: The Untold Story of the Yom
Kippur War, had just answered some
political questions when a man in the
crowd took the stage.
"Blum said, Well, I guess I'm getting
the hook,"' Silberg said. "The man start-
ed to give a pitch about something he
heard in a Daniel Pipes column. People
were getting annoyed. Then he said he
just came back from Israel and people
ought to go there.
"Someone in the audience said, 'You're
not the speaker. Why are you talking?'
Silberg said. "Then he shouted, 'Well,
look, if you don't like what I'm saying,
you can walk out.'"
Silberg's wife, Ethel, said, "The place
just turned into bedlam."
Book Fair officials urned off the
microphone to end the event.
The man was Dr. Lester Zeff, a vice
president of the Zionist Organization of
America, Michigan Region, a co-sponsor
of the event, said Jerome S. Kaufman,
ZOA executive committee chairman.
A spokesman from the National
Christian Leadership for Israel made the
opening remarks and the ZOA asked to
give the closing comment. The ZOA
was not listed in the program as a co-
sponsor of the Blum event, which may
have led to the confusion, Kaufman
said.
"Organizations sometimes don't get in
on time for the printer," said Elaine
Schonberger, Book Fair organizer.
Kaufman said the author turned the
event into a political discussion with rec-

ommendations that had nothing to do
with the book itself. "Basically, the guy's
not a political scientist, he's a novelist."
In fact, Blum, a former New York
Times investigative reporter, is the author
of many non-fiction books that take in-
depth looks at historical subjects.

— Harry Kirsbaum

Thanksgiving Booklet
Celebrates Diversity

A

merica's Table: A Thanksgiving
Reader" has been designed for
use at Thanksgiving Day cele-
brations, giving people pause to think
about the immigrants' contributions to
America and about issues such as civil
and human rights.
The free booklet will be available at a
breakfast reception at 7:45 a.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 19, at the
International Institute of Metropolitan
Detroit, 111 E. Kirby. The free recep-
tion is sponsored by the American
Jewish Committee, Metropolitan
Detroit Chapter.
Copies of the booklet also can be
picked up at the AJC office in the Max
M. Fisher Federation Building, 6735
Telegraph, Suite 320, in Bloomfield
Township.
"It is my hope that Thanksgiving cele-
brants will take a moment or two out of
the holiday to think about our commu-
nity's rich diversity, to appreciate the
contributions immigrants have made to
America and to commemorate and
remember some of our country's
unrighteous moments that challenge us
to pursue justice and celebrate freedom,"
said Sharona Shapiro, AJC's Michigan
area director.
Sponsors of the "Thanksgiving
Reader" are AJC, NAACP, National
Council of La Raza, National Urban
League, Islamic Supreme Council of
America and the Japanese American
Citizens League. Ford Motor Company
is a corporate sponsor and is distributing
5,000 copies to its North American
employees.

— Keri Guten Cohen

Defiant Children
Can Be Tamed

A

re your children at the sweet age
when they put hands on their
hips, look at you sternly and say,
"Try and make me!"
Well, co-authors Dr. Ray Levy and
Bill O'Hanlon have a book for you.
Called Try and Make Me: Simple

Strategies that Turn Of the Tantrums and
Create Cooperation, the book is filled
with practical advice parents can use for
dealing with a defiant child without los-
ing their cool.
Dr. Levy will tell his secrets in person
at a program at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18,
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek-B'nai
Israel in West Bloomfield.
The event is sponsored by Hillel Day
School of Metropolitan Detroit's Parent
Connection and the Morris and Beverly
Baker Foundation in memory of Morris
D. Baker through the Eugene and
Marcia Applebaum Center for Jewish
Living of Shaarey Zedek. This is a first-
time joint effort. The program is open
to the community. (See related story in
AppleTree, page 39.)
— Keri Guten Cohen

Cancer Legislation
Aimed at Educating

It

eps. Sander Levin, D-Michigan,
and Kay Granger, R-Texas,
joined 36 colleagues to intro-
duce Johanna's Law: The Gynecologic
Cancer Education and Awareness Act.
The bill is named for Johanna Silver
Gordon, a health-conscious teacher from
West Bloomfield who died of ovarian
cancer in 2000. Her sister, former
Detroiter Sheryl Silver of Florida, was
instrumental in initiating the legislation.
"Johanna and I learned only after she
was diagnosed with ovarian cancer that
the persistent heartburn and abdominal
bloating she experienced were among
common symptoms of the disease,"
Silver says.
The legislation would create a federal
campaign to increase early detection of
gynecologic cancers — ovarian, cervical
and uterine — and, when possible, help
women reduce their risk. The legislation
would combine a national public service
announcement directed at all women
with targeted grants to local and nation-
al organizations.
"While diagnosis and treatment tech-
niques are becoming more refined and
accurate, we have more than 80,000
women being diagnosed with gyneco-
logic cancers and approximately 26,000
lose their battle each year to these can-
cers," said Dr. Kenneth Hatch, president
of the Society of Gynecologic Oncolo-
gists, which endorses the legislation.
0
The National Council of Jewish
Women, American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists and
Gilda's Club Worldwide are among the
groups that endorse the bill.

— Sharon Zuckerman